Ohio had the third largest increase in poverty rate among the states this decade and the third-highest decline in median household income, new 2008 data released by the Census Bureau show.

The state had a 2.8 percentage point increase in poverty since 2000, trailing only Michigan and Indiana, according to data released today, Sept. 29, in the American Community Survey. In 2000, Ohio ranked 31st with a poverty rate of 10.6 percent. But by 2008, the state’s rank climbed to 19th with a rate of 13.4 percent.

Median household income had also dropped by almost $5,000 or 9.3 percent since the 2000 census.

“The grim story (told in the statistics) is very consistent with what we’re seeing on the front lines,” said Laura J. Roesch, executive director of Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley.

The agency is helping more seniors and children these days — 60 percent of those served in its food pantry program — and it’s getting 150-200 new families per month who never before requested help, Roesch said. “We’re up 38 percent in requests for emergency food. Folks who have been self-sufficient in the past have been reaching out for help because of job loss.”

Catholic Social Services also is getting requests for help from underemployed people “working to survive on a partial income,” she said.

The data show that nearly 1.5 million Ohioans had incomes below the poverty level last year, including a half million children and more than 130,000 senior citizens.

The growth in poverty was estimated at slightly more than 28,000 people, which was not a statistically significant change from 2007. But the 2008 data, collected in surveys throughout the year, don’t capture the full impact of the economic meltdown that began last fall.

Montgomery County’s poverty rate outpaced the state by increasing 3.5 percent. The county had an estimated 77,588 in poverty last year, or almost 15 percent. Butler and Greene counties came in second in the region with identical 42,850 people in poverty. Their poverty rates were 12.4 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively.

Local counties also saw dramatic drops in median household income as layoffs began to accelerate last year.

Race and education continued to be major fault lines in the poverty landscape.

Blacks, Ohio’s largest minority group, were about three times more likely to be living in poverty than whites, the survey found. Almost three in 10 blacks, or close to 400,000, were living in poverty, the data show, while only 10.6 percent of non-Hispanic whites (24,414) had incomes below the poverty level.

Those without a high school diploma were almost seven times more likely to be in poverty than those with a bachelor’s degree. Almost a quarter of high school dropouts were in poverty, the survey found, while 3.5 percent with a four-year college degree were.

There’s a lot of human suffering behind those numbers, say officials of local social service agencies.

“We’re seeing totally stressed-out people who are on their last leg financially,” said Jan Lepore-Jentleson, executive director of East End Community Services. “If they’re not in tears when they walk in, they eventually break down when they’re talking to our staff. I mean, everybody just cries around here anymore.”